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The Rangers Need to Fix Their AHL Problems

The AHL is a finicky league. NHL clubs heavily prioritize NHL performance (of course), and that’s often at the expense of its AHL club via call-ups and trades. Rosters consist of an eclectic group of players that changes practically every week. What’s more, the focus is on player development even if it sometimes comes at the expense of winning. With all of that chaos, a team can be forgiven if a season doesn’t quite work out.

The Wolf Pack are well beyond that point, though. Barring a monumental turnaround, this will be the fourth-straight season that they will fail to qualify for the AHL playoffs, and fifth out of the last six. If we are to take the Rangers at their word that a competitive NHL team is vital to the development of its young players, then that should be true in the AHL as well.

Whether because of that or a different reason, the young players in Hartford are not progressing as hoped. Lias Andersson and Tim Gettinger started the season well but have plateaued over the last few months. Ville Meskanen and Gabriel Fontaine have been just okay relative to expectations, but certainly not banging on the NHL’s door. Michael Lindqvist was bought out and departed for Sweden after just 16 average games. Beyond them, almost everyone has disappointed. Libor Hájek, Ryan Lindgren, and Brandon Crawley have all had an immensely difficult time on defense with only marginal improvements, while Ryan Gropp, Ty Ronning, and Sean Day have struggled so much that they’ve been demoted to the ECHL at various points in the season.

Therein lies a bigger issue for the Rangers. Wins and losses in the AHL are secondary to player development, and transitioning prospects from the AHL to the NHL has been a massive problem recently. Yes, some credit is deserved for the developments of Brady Skjei, J.T. Miller, and Filip Chytil. However, those are three players who would have almost certainly made the NHL regardless. They were sent to the AHL to figure out finishing touches. A bigger measure of successful AHL development is in turning those 50/50 prospects into capable NHLers. Excluding first-round picks, the most recently graduated player to spend a lengthy stint in Hartford was Jesper Fast in November 2014. We’ll see if Neal Pionk, Boo Nieves, and/or Vinni Lettieri can break that drought, but over four years without the AHL turning a single depth prospect into a legitimate NHLer is calamitous.

Great read, pretty disturbing as we in a rebuilding mode with such underwhelming assets in Hartford. Until proven wrong over the next couple years I'm going to stick with I'm far from confident that Gorton and others are capable of making the right choices especially building through the draft.

Great read, pretty disturbing as we in a rebuilding mode with such underwhelming assets in Hartford. Until proven wrong over the next couple years I'm going to stick with I'm far from confident that Gorton and others are capable of making the right choices especially building through the draft.

Gorton has been doing fine. Andersson and Hajek alone aren't going to make Hartford a playoff team.

We'll see so far only Chytil is showing solid potential at the NHL level. Howden had been struggling for months. The others IF they pan out great I would think some of them will not and when are they projected to make an NHL lineup and actually contribute (not counting as a member of the breakfast club).

Bring in a college coach to be head coach of the Hartford Whalers? Someone used to developing young players? It should be a cause for concern... because in order to rebuild properly we need young talent to develop

"We're all f*cked. It helps to remember that." - George Carlin

"How many Cups you've got?" - Esa Tikkanen

"Hatred can keep you warm when you run out of liquor" - Ray Ratto, Dan Patrick show 1/20/2017

Bring in a college coach to be head coach of the Hartford Whalers? Someone used to developing young players? It should be a cause for concern... because in order to rebuild properly we need young talent to develop

(laughing) yeah, I kind of had him in mind. If DQ was ever going to get fired to make room for someone like Babcock, whether he would accept coaching Hartford. Probably no way in hell. Coaches from premier college hockey programs wouldn't leave for the AHL. Maybe a coach from the bottom end of the D1 top 20 hockey rankings would be interested, or a premier program in a lower division.

"We're all f*cked. It helps to remember that." - George Carlin

"How many Cups you've got?" - Esa Tikkanen

"Hatred can keep you warm when you run out of liquor" - Ray Ratto, Dan Patrick show 1/20/2017

Rangers best prospects simply aren't in the AHL. Before two years ago they hadn't had a single first round pick in years which means the people in Hartford are mostly warm bodies. When people were saying the cupboards were bare, they weren't kidding. It'll take a while before they're competitive again.

I think it mainly has to do with talent.
The last 2 drafts have seen the Rangers massively improve their talent pipeline but, as ThirtyONE says, none of those prospects (bar Andersson and Hajek) are in Hartford yet. Being consistently shit obviously has an effect on most aspects of that organization. It seems incredibly difficult to have a strong opinion on what might be wrong there until they get a playing roster that is good enough.
The worry is of course that the Rangers are about to pass their future through what appears to be a developmental black hole. I would feel a lot better about that if steps were taken to improve the coaching and backroom staff.